Lola. Jacques Demy. 1961. ⚃

I haven’t seen any Demy movies (I think?) except that umbrella movie that I saw as a teenager.

But I bought this box set of Demy movies because he’s Agnès Varda’s husband, and she speaks fondly of him (and his movies) in some of her movies.

So this is the first one, and it’s his first movie?

[half an hour passes]

I… I’m just not connecting with this movie. It’s very nicely shot (although the lens they’re using is weird: Everything at the edges gets smushed), and it’s very amiable, but the performances are just kinda amateurish? And not in a good way?

[fifty minutes pass]

I’m liking this a lot more now. And it’s weird seeing scenes that are reminiscent of the Jaques de Nantes movie (the biographical movie), because it repeated scenes from Demy’s movies… which I hadn’t seen before. So when those scenes pop up here I’m like but but but… Oh yeah.

[the end]

I really, really enjoyed this movie towards the end: It’s smart, it’s funny, it’s sad, it’s moving. Did Demy film this sequentially? Did he just get better as the movie progressed?

I don’t know. Perhaps it’s just me.

Knives Out. Rian Johnson. 2019. ⚂

I do my best to know absolutely nothing about movies I’m going to see, but this is a bluray I bought because I did know something about it: It’s supposed to be a pastiche of classic British crime movies (and novels)? I love that stuff. I’m always up for some Marpling.

Oh! It’s by the director of that Star Trek movie? Hm… Well… OK… Oh, and Looper.

Eep. It’s two hours and ten minutes long? That’s not very British Mystery — the fun of those movies much in how they zip along breathlessly.

Well, let’s see.

[twenty minutes pass]

This is very 2019: It’s got alt-right Nazis (that’s a pleonasm) and no shots that last longer than two seconds and a vague timeline (we skip back to scenes in the past all the time) and it’s all so ironic because everybody’s telling the cops (and the necessary-for-the-genre private dick) something other than what we’re seeing in the flashbacks.

So… instead of a British mystery, it feels like a… Columbo episode that’s been edited in 2019.

It makes everything feels very slow and dumb, but with hyper-active editing to distract us.

But I’m enjoying the performances. The set design is overwhelming — every shot has so many details. Everything turns into mush, even on this 4K versions.

Or… is it CGI? Are the backgrounds not meticulously ridiculously over-dressed furnishings, but instead ridiculously over-dressed green-screen CGI?

[an hour passes]

I’m waiting for a twist I’m pretty sure is coming (I mean, it’s obvious what it’s going to be, isn’t it?), and that is kinda annoying. Because this seems like a movie where a twist is coming.

Otherwise, I’m pretty much really bored by the entire thing. Occasionally, there’s a bit in a scene that’s funny: I mean, I laughed out loud at a couple of the bits, but it feels like it’s hours when it’s just … tedious. Perhaps if this had been forty minutes shorter, it would have been a fun movie?

There’s bits I like: Some of the shots are almost striking, and the performances are fun.

But it’s zzz.

[the end]

How disappointing. The twist was what I thought it was going to be. Well, some wrinkles were different, but basically the culprit and the reason why.

It’s so damn slow!

Oh, well. I guess people like this crap.

Color Out of Space. Richard Stanley. 2019. ⚂

Hm… Richard Stanley… that name seems familiar…

Oh, he did Hardware.

[half an hour passes]

Well, I’m not hating this… it’s like an 80s slow-build horrorish movie? It’s kinda nice how they’re giving the characters space to do some er character development… On the other hand, it’s not wildly riveting, either.

I wonder whether this is a really low budget movie? Some of the shots are kinda iffy, but others look kinda expensive?

Oh, it’s kinda low-ish budget… and it’s totally bombing at the box office. And I guess it premiered before Rona, so that’s not the explanation?

I guess it just bombed, so we’re probably not going to see the other two Lovecraft movies the director had planned.

[forty minutes more pass]

Oh, I guess the older son is supposed to be a teenager? I read him as a developmentally challenged 30-year-old…

Well that makes more sense!

Anyway, besides casting challenges, I still like this movie… it’s very retro. But it’s getting kinda boring. All the characters are so… in denial… anybody would just… leave. Instead of staying to look at all that pink/purple light. So it’s hard to stay focused on the movie.

[the end]

I was totally there for the first hour, and the last fifteen minutes are good. But this movie has about half an hour of sheer boredom in between those parts. Just… why?

This is almost a very good sci-fi horror movie.